Temperature-dependent resistive switching characteristics for Au/n-type CuAlOx/heavily doped p-type Si devices

• Au/CuAlOx/Si devices show bipolar switching phenomenon at temperatures above 220 K.
• The electrical resistance is decreased with increasing temperature.
• The resistive switching behavior is dominated by hopping conduction.
• This is due to electron hopping mediated through the mobile oxygen vacancies.

Bipolar switching phenomenon is found for Au/n-type CuAlOx/heavily doped p-type Si devices at temperatures above 220 K. For high or low resistive states (HRS or LRS), the electrical resistance is decreased with increasing temperature, indicating a semiconducting behavior. Carrier transport at LRS or HRS is dominated by hopping conduction. It is reasonable to conclude that the transition from HRS to LRS due to the migration of oxygen vacancies (VO) is associated with electron hopping mediated through the VO trap sites. The disappearance of the resistive switching behavior below 220 K is attributed to the immobile VO traps. The deep understanding of conduction mechanism could help to control the device performance.